Over the last couple weeks, several of my colleagues in the tech press have printed reviews of the Galaxy S5, Samsung’s newest top-of-the-line smartphone. all of them came across a lot of or less identical conclusion: The S5 could be a very nice device.
Although it offers no spectacular advances over the previous version, Samsung appears to own done simply enough with the S5 to remain earlier than each different android phone maker. the only plausible competition comes within the style of the HTC One, which, as my colleague molly Wood wrote, is prettier than the S5 however not as useful. The effect of of these reviews is that if you’re probing for the simplest android phone, Samsung’s is the one to buy.
But that’s not the complete story. whereas there are most likely some people that depart to buy for the most effective android phone, i believe that the majority individuals want to understand that phone is better of all, no matter OS it runs. In different words, however does the Galaxy S5 compare to the iPhone 5S, Apple’s six-month-old flagship device and therefore the champion to beat?
The answer: Not alright. I’ve been exploitation the new Samsung for concerning 3 weeks, and whereas I do assume it's the most effective android phone you'll be able to purchase, it positive isn’t the simplest phone on the market. By each major measure you’ll care about, from speed to design to simple use to the quality of its apps, Samsung’s phone ranks behind the iPhone, typically way behind. If you’re searching for the most effective phone on the market immediately, I’d suggest going with the iPhone 5S.
This is not to say you’ll hate the Galaxy; as everybody says, it’s an excellent phone, and if you purchase it you’ll be fine. The Galaxy will have slightly longer battery life than the iPhone, and it's waterproof, an unusual feature among top-end phones.
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| Like the Samsung Galaxy S4, the S5 has a plastic body that can come across as cheap-feeling. |
To me, though, these two advantages are slight. Indeed, for several individuals, there'll only be one obvious reason to shop for the Galaxy S5 over the iPhone 5S: The Samsung phone features a a lot of larger screen. Size isn’t an objective advantage however rather a matter of preference — some individuals like massive phones and a few individuals like little ones. For the next few months, for big-phone lovers, Samsung’s large size can build it the clear winner.
Yet that points to a looming drawback for Samsung. News reports and customary sense recommend that Apple will virtually definitely unveil a much bigger iPhone later this year. If you assume that everything else about the iPhone-versus-Galaxy match-up can stay a similar after the size increase, it means that Samsung will lose its single greatest advantage over Apple.
And what will Samsung do then? after you compare the Galaxy to the iPhone, it’s not obvious that Samsung can have any possible way to fight back once Apple makes a much bigger phone.
I don’t mean to sound glib. however in some ways, the battle for smartphone dominance could be a pretty straightforward fight. Apple makes at least two thirds of the profit within the smartphone business, and Samsung makes regarding the opposite third. nobody else makes any money selling smartphones, thus any gain for Apple may be a loss for Samsung, and vice versa.
In recent years, the growth rate for iPhone sales has over-involved. this is often partially because, once it involves expensive phones, client preferences seem to possess shifted in favor of huge phones — and Samsung has been additional nimble than Apple at responding to the demand. Apple highlighted this reality during a sales presentation recently disclosed as a part of its patent-infringement fight against Samsung. “Consumers wish what we have a tendency to don’t have,” the document stated, noting that the majority of the growth within the profitable phase of the smartphone business had been in phones with screens larger than the iPhone’s 4-inch display.
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| Like the Samsung Galaxy S4, the S5 has a plastic body that can come across as cheap-feeling. |
But as my management-consultant friends say, the flip side of a problem is an opportunity. If Apple’s major disadvantage could be a too-small phone, all it has to try to to is build its phone larger. creating a bigger phone isn’t trivial, however it's a comparatively straightforward fix. Apple has done it well before — 2 years ago, it place out the iPhone 5, which had a screen simply a bit taller than its predecessor — and that i suspect it will simply manage the transition yet again.
Samsung’s issues, meanwhile, are going to be harder to handle, as you'll be able to tell by spending a while with the S5. one of its major new features could be a fingerprint-sensor meant to allow you to unlock your phone while not writing a passcode, a feature Apple introduced on the iPhone 5S last year. I don’t fault Samsung for repeating Apple’s fingerprint idea, even as I won’t fault Apple for copying Samsung when it makes a bigger phone. Fingerprint unlocking could be a smart idea, and additional phones ought to have it.
But I do fault Samsung for the slapdash manner within which it introduced fingerprint scanning. I’ve been using the iPhone’s fingerprint sensor for the last six months, and it's worked about nine times out of ten on behalf of me. The Galaxy S5’s finger sensor is unusable. it's failed to acknowledge my finger with reference to anytime I actually have tried it. it has been therefore terrible that the sensor feels additional sort of a promoting gimmick than a legitimate feature. And it makes ME surprise regarding Samsung’s capability to stay up with Apple’s innovations.
So, too, does the Galaxy’s speed. The S5 is actually quick, however the iPhone 5S is quicker. whereas the speed won’t be an enormous deal to most users (you’ll principally notice it in games and internet browsing), it will purpose to a retardant for Samsung. The rapid increase in year-by-year mobile chip performance has been a trademark of the phone business for years. It’s uncommon during this trade for a replacement phone to be slower than a phone free six months ago. when Samsung’s Galaxy S4 came out last year, it absolutely was abundant faster than the iPhone 5 that preceded it. however this year, Samsung couldn’t keep up; as the speed-testing gurus at AnandTech showed, by on the subject of every speed metric, the aging iPhone 5S beat the brand-new Galaxy S5.
Then there are the perennial issues for Samsung’s devices. just like the S4, the S5 features a cheap-feeling plastic body, and it’s hobbled by a proprietary software interface full of byzantine menus and settings screens. you feel this complexness throughout the phone. Even in places where Samsung has introduced novel features that are better than Apple’s — like a number of its advanced camera options — they’re buried in an exceedingly programme that produces them troublesome to discover.
None of these issues are disabling for Samsung just yet. With its 5.1-inch screen, the Galaxy S5 is the best massive phone you'll be able to purchase, and it'll be so for months. After that, though, Samsung’s smartphone dominance might look a little unsure.
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